Saudi prince 'knew nothing' about murder

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump fiercely defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting the kingdom's de facto ruler “knew nothing” about the murder as he wooed him at the White House.

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US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official dinner.

(AFP)

Trump sought to brush the gruesome murder of the Washington Post columnist under the red carpet, honouring the Saudi royal with a flypast and lavish dinner, and formally naming Riyadh as a major non-Nato ally.

He raged at a journalist who asked the prince in the Oval Office about the case for embarrassing the Saudi royal on his first US trip since the murder, and called Khashoggi “extremely controversial”.

“A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about,” he said.

“Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happened, but he (the prince) knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”